Release Information

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: TUESDAY, FEB. 8, 2011

Census Bureau Reports a 70 Percent Increase in the Number of Black-Owned Businesses in the Philadelphia Metro Area

The number of black-owned businesses in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, Pa.-N.J.-Del.-Md., metropolitan statistical area increased to 41,617 in 2007 from 24,486 in 2002, a 70.0 percent increase, the U.S. Census Bureau announced today. Over the same period, receipts generated by these businesses increased 28.4 percent to $2.6 billion. Nationally, the number of black-owned businesses rose to 1.9 million, a 60.5 percent increase, and sales by these businesses increased to $137.5 billion, a 55.1 percent increase.

Industries in the metro area with the largest number of black-owned businesses included health care and social assistance (9,961 businesses); and repair, maintenance, personal and laundry services (5,197 businesses).

These new data come from the 2007 Survey of Business Owners, which is part of the 2007 Economic Census. This survey provides detailed information every five years for black-owned businesses, including the number of firms, sales and receipts, number of paid employees and annual payroll for states, counties, cities and metropolitan areas.

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The Survey of Business Owners is conducted every five years as part of the economic census. The 2007 survey collected data from a sample of more than 2.3 million businesses. Data collected in a sample survey are subject to sampling variability, as well as nonsampling errors. Sources of nonsampling errors include errors of response, nonreporting and coverage. More details concerning the SBO survey design, methodology and data limitations can be found at <https://www.census.gov/econ/sbo/methodology.html<.